Mulan

Comments (0)

Transcript of Mulan

By: Melissa Ballard ,Yeonsoo Kim, Leah Spitz Mulan Meanwhile, preparations for the festival to celebrate the defeat of the Huns were in full swing. However, the emperor was beginning to feel nervous again about the Huns invasion. He started having night terrors and horrible visions of the Huns attacking at a moments notice. He could not sleep at night and lost much REM sleep. He couldn't focus and became agitated during the day. He set up more security, but no one took the old man seriously. The fact that no one believed him caused the emperor more stress. He started having panic attacks and not being able to trust anyone. THE END!!!!! Meanwhile, the emperor believed that Shan Yu posed a threat because of a villainous archetype, which he assumed the Hun was. The people of China did not realize that their emperor suffered from Generalized Anxiety disorder, which caused him to be nervous every time he saw an imagined threat. Soon a proclamation came to their village that every able bodied man was to be drafted, but the only man in Mulan’s family was her father. He had been a general for many years, and was ready to give up his life for his country, once again. However, Mulan did not agree. With Mulan’s increasing symptoms of schizophrenia, she had a delusion that her father was weak and severely sick. What she is expected to look. The way she feelscomfortable. We have all heard the story of Mulan saving China with the help of Mushu. However, that story is far from the truth. The driving forces of this plot were actually psychologically based problems. The great invasion of the Huns was not caused by a real threat, but by post- traumatic stress disorder. Shan Yu existed, but the rest of his army did not. The great and powerful imperial army was made up by nothing more than mentally unsound individuals. One report of Shan Yu’s presence caused the old emperor to have flashbacks of the wars he had previously served in. He began to have delusions about the threat against China. So what of the heroine Mulan? It was weeks into their march towards the Imperial City, and eventually the army was able to rest in the snow covered mountains. Mulan, so tensed and stressed by the imminent threat of the Huns, suddenly imagined them coming over the hill. However, there was only Shan Yu. Mulan was prepared to fight them, but Mushu insisted that, like him, the army was not real and that it was only the product of her stress and anxiety. However in her hysterical state, Mulan refused to listen to her friend. She freaked out and set a case of dynamite on a high mountain, and caused an avalanche that nearly wiped out the entire imperial army. What she sees... What is actually there... Mulan was left in the snow shivering and cold. After the soldiers left, Mushu comforted Mulan. With much persuasion and calm words, he convinced Mulan that the entire Hun army was in her subconscious and that her way of thinking was wrong. After a while Mulan started to agree with him, and realized that some of the events that happened to her must have been in her mind. She decided to leave the battlefield and go home. However, the avalanche she had previously caused had not taken out the lone Hun. On her way back home, she saw Shan Yu sharpening his weapons and heading towards the Imperial City. Hurriedly she rushed off to save the emperor. Mulan‘s experience in the army was very different from the way she was raised at home. With use of authoritarian style of training, the army was tightly run and unforgiving. Also, Chang, the leader of the army, suffered from extreme obsessive compulsive disorder. He ran the army like clockwork and was upset if anything was less than perfect. He thought that the best way to control the army was through operant conditioning. He wanted to train the soldiers to be men, and therefore punished them, if they did not act as such. He rewarded them if they were able to go through with the training each day. Mulan felt very alone, but thankfully, she made some new friends to help her get through the tough times in the army. Mulan’s family wanted to marry her off to a prestigious man in their village, however no one wanted to marry a girl who had androgynous tendencies. All the boys were scared of her and none of the girls wanted to be friends with her. Her parents searched everywhere for many months, but they could not find a man willing enough to take Mulan as his bride. "Only you can save China." "It is your destiny." "Just think positively..." Before After Mulan got on her knees to beg the army to stay with her, but her wig fell off revealing that she was a girl in disguise. Chang was disgusted with her and horrified that she lied to him and the rest of the army. He yelled at her by saying that she put the entire country of China at risk because of her psychotic ways of thinking. He made an executive decision to leave so they could arrive to the capital to tell the emperor that the threat of the Huns was gone. He wanted to arrive on time because if he did not, it would reflect poorly on him in front of the emperor. Mulan called him out on his narcissism and how he only wanted to look good in front of the emperor in order to be elected to a higher position. Chang laughed at her and left her in the snow to have her think about how dangerous her actions were. Mulan called out to her friends, but they just shook their heads and left her alone. As a reward for Mulan saving his life, the emperor decided that she deserved an honorable husband because no one wanted to marry her before. He choose to punish Chang for rushing back to the city and not seeing if there were any more Hun threats. He forced Chang to marry Mulan. After waking up from his dazed slumber the commander was devastated, because he dreamed of marrying a beautiful woman to compliment his own beauty. The people of China bowed to Mulan in gratitude. Her parents viewed their daughter as a disgrace, cast her from the society, and did not allow Mulan to have much contact with her village. Mulan’s family made it its mission to get rid of the androgynous aspect of her personality. They made her practice her manners, and be a lady at every chance she had. They forced her to wear makeup and beautiful heavy kimonos so that she could get used to the idea of acting more feminine. These new activities made Mulan extremely unhappy and she wished for any husband so that she could go back to the lifestyle that made her happy. She prayed to the spirits of her family and asked for their advice. She imagined that the spirits in her head told her to save China and her father. They also whispered to her that if she took her father’s place, she could regain a sense of pride for her family and herself. They convinced her further by telling her she could express her androgynous feelings and no one would criticize her for it. Mulan decided to run away to the army. To deal with the stress of this situation, her subconscious created a guide, Mushu, to help her face a new chapter in her life. Mushu told Mulan that her new friends had some serious psychological issues. He recommended cognitive psychology to treat their issues. Mulan was shocked that her friends had psychological problems. She decided to use Mushu's treatments on her friends to help them be happier. Although Mulan's friend's were happier, Mulan was still upset by her new life. Mulan saw what was going on around her, and felt restricted by gender roles. However, Mushu encouraged her by telling her she was doing a great thing for her family and her country. Mushu used cognitive therapy to change her thinking in a more positive way. One of her new friends Ling, was a skinny guy. He was always skipping out on meal times after a long day of training. One day, Mushu pointed out to Mulan that her friend was anorexic, and that had probably been harboring the eating disorder for years. His perception of his body was distorted by the disease and caused him to watch his weight obsessively. Chien-Po was the largest man in the entire Imperial army. Since he came from a wealthy family, he had always eaten well. So well that he was now considered obese. The soldier attempted to cut down on his food consumption but simply could not. Her last friend Yao was very aggressive. Bullied as a young child, Yao found that being aggressive was the only way to defend himself. He believed that by putting up a violent loud front, people would stay away from him. However, Mulan and her friends were not perturbed by his act. At first Mulan was a terrible soldier. She was too feminine and could not defend herself during the rigorous training courses. Her new friends laughed at her jokingly and Mulan cried herself to sleep each night, because of her shame. She could not even be a proper woman, how could she think she could pull off acting as a tough man?Chang was disgusted with the way she handled herself, and he was considering throwing her out of the army, because of her poor performance. During her many months of training, she started to get closer to Chang. At first he was upset with her lack of progress. However, over time she became one of the best soldiers in the army. Chang announced her as his favorite soldier, and spent the most time with her. Mulan started to notice him physically and opened up her heart to him. Slowly, she started to fall for Chang. Mushu made Mulan drop the negative attitude, and adopt a more positive outlook. Mulan decided she could give herself the will power to be the best soldier in the army. She woke up early and trained harder than anyone else. She soon gained respect from her new friends, and the men in the army. She was proud of her accomplishments, and the soldiers were starting to respect her. Chang started to notice her improvement as well. Mulan started to rise up in the ranks of the army. All the men looked up to her as another leader. Chang was pleasantly surprised at her new found success. He started relying on her for numerous tasks in the army. He confided in her, and relied on her as a friend. Mulan ignored his unattractive qualities, but Mushu noticed some uglier traits. He saw Chang's Bipolar mood swings, and egotistical traits. Mulan could not see this, because with each passing day, she was falling more and more in love with Chang. She could not confess her feelings to anyone except for Mushu, and he warned Mulan to stay away from him. He knew this would hurt her and ruin her new positive outlook. Chang and the rest of the army were frightened by Mulan’s erratic behavior. They finally realized that she was delusional, and they wanted to leave her behind. Mulan's friends Yao, Ling, and Po were horrified by their friend. They thought they could trust her and they were confused by her crazed actions. Mulan saw confused and scared looks, and realized the danger she had caused for everyone. She was so ashamed. It was that very night of the festival that Shan Yu the assassin sneaked into the imperial city. With Chang’s men at ease from partying at the festival and drinking, they were unprepared to save the emperor from the lone assassin, who kidnapped him. Mulan rushed into the city just as the emperor was taken. She knew she had the motivation to save him. She looked for her friends and begged them to help her. They decided that she was their friend and they would help her break into the palace where the emperor was being held hostage. Mulan gained adrenaline, which enabled her to climb the palace walls, and run across the high roofs without falling. She focused and took all the skills she learned from Chang to fight against Shan Yu. With the help of her friends she was able to help the emperor escape, and kill Shan Yu. Mulan managed to destroy much of the palace in the process, but she was considered the savior of China. However, a year later Chang was hit on the head before his wedding ceremony which caused him to have amnesia. He could never remember loathing the androgynous Mulan and fell madly in love with her. Mushu still remained with Mulan and helped her cope with her new life. As her love for Chang grew more and more, Mushu started to show up less in her life. Eventually Mulan let go completely and forgot about Mushu. Together she and Chang lived happily, if a little dysfunctional. Mulan had more than just her androgynous tendencies to worry about. Since a young age, she had relied on animals for company. Without any friends to play with, her dog and the family horse filled the void created by her loneliness. When she was young, her parents allowed her to play with the animals. However, since she was becoming an adult, both her mother and father were becoming concerned about Mulan. Her parents were afraid that, Mulan would inherit her grandmother's genetics, and would begin to believe that animals could talk. They had no idea that Mulan was in fact very lonely and suffering from schizophrenia. The people of China were helpless against the Hun as Chang had passed out during the festivities and could not command his army. Shan Yu demanded that the Emperor give him riches beyond his wildest belief in exchange for his life. Everyone held their breath. Mulan returned home and for the first time in her life was welcomed by the villagers of her town. Her mother and father were amazed by all she had accomplished, and even more excited about her recent engagement with the less than enthusiastic commander. Finally her lack of life partner would not shame the family.